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Some analysts in Mexico saw it coming right after the presidential election while some leftist pundits probably didn't want to believe it: Andrés Manuel López Obrador deciding to leave the leftist parties that he headed as a candidate for the presidency — including the Democratic Revolution Party, or PRD, which anchored the coalition with the Labor Party and Citizen's Movement. Reportedly, the ex-candidate will consult with the Movement for National Regeneration, or MORENA, to form a new political party.

López Obrador's refusal to recognize Felipe Calderón Hinojosa of the National Action Party, or PAN, as president after the election of 2006 unleashed months of protests and political crisis that ended up further fracturing the left, increasing ideological polarization that remains alive today.

Six years ago, it would have been great for López Obrador to take on social causes that needed — and continue to need — champions in Mexico. Back then, I wondered about López Obrador's (also known as AMLO) legacy and how history would judge that political moment of crisis, seeing an opportunity for him to become a social reform leader.

Fast forward to July 3, 2012, and well-known Mexican columnist Léon Krauze, who relocated to Los Angeles from Mexico City to work for Univision last year, reached a similar conclusion in a column for Milenio seeing that AMLO needed to tackle another goal: “the (one of becoming a) social leader.”

It's uncertain, however unlikely, that the politico from Tabasco will embrace a full-time fight to chip away at the many unresolved social issues south of the border while leaving behind his presidential aspirations as the leader of MORENA — he has sharp instincts and definitely wants to continue as a player in national politics.

“The time for AMLO as a presidential candidate has expired,” said Cintia Smith, a political science professor with Monterrey Tech, via email.

“It's yet to be seen if the political base becomes divided, but we'll see in the future,” added Smith.

And MORENA, which has supported him in recent years after the crisis of 2006, has explicitly stated plans for civil disobedience and demonstrations in opposition to a labor reform initiative when Enrique Peña Nieto takes office Dec. 1 — which will be awkward for the other forces in the left.

AMLO's unifying effect in this year's presidential election, helping the fractured and chaotic left net good gains in congress, worked like a charm. But for a second time his political ambitions most likely will complicate life for the left in the next congressional election in 2015 and possibly even the presidential campaign of 2018.

We'll probably see different actors and factions within the broad spectrum of Mexico's leftist parties seeking a symbiotic relationship with the Tabasqueño politician and possibly MORENA as a new political party operating from the extreme reactionary left – but, we're still two years away for the registry to open for new parties.

But perhaps the transformation of MORENA into a political party offers the best possible solution for the left by giving AMLO the opportunity of a leadership position — which seemed impossible with the PRD.

And the truly complicated and byzantine road of the left will continue, accommodating AMLO in its design — at least for now. Maybe, we're already seeing the first glimpses of a third presidential nomination.